Allentown's Lynn Butler Lets Her Shooting Speak For Itself

Lynn Butler lets her shooting speak for itself. And she CAN shoot. The shy, humble sophomore recently slipped by the 1,000 career points mark at Allentown College.

"Lynn is identical to the day I met her," reported fourth-year Allentown coach Tom Shirley. "Somedays, if you don't pick up her chin, you can't look in her eyes. She's quick to shun the spotlight and she never wants to know what her stats are. The only thing she's ever asked me about is her shooting percentage, because she doesn't want to take too many shots and feel guilty with her teammates. She's a sincere sweetheart."

Finding Butler and recruiting her to his program was a sort of godsend for Shirley. He just happened to go to her high school, Bishop Kenrick, for a game one night three years ago because it was in his Norristown neighborhood. The 4-7 team didn't entertain many college recruiters. But Shirley stopped in to see if there was any local talent worth recruiting.

"I sort of went to watch this one 6-1 girl. But Lynn scored 25 points in that game and really stood out," Shirley related. Chuckling, he added, "I asked a girl in the stands who No. 25 was and the next day when I talked to the coach, the girls had thought I was going to be Lynn's prom date or something. From then on I sent her about 35 pieces of correspondence, saw her play about 15 times, saw her in my neighborhood and went over to see her parents a bunch."

In high school, Butler started her last two years and scored about 650 points despite knee problems. Recruiters weren't exactly knocking down her door.

Said Shirley, "When I saw her play, I knew she was going to be good no matter who she played for. She's been much more than I thought she'd be. Since she lives inmy neighborhood, we spend about two-and-a-half to three hours a week shooting in the summer. I tend to drag her out, but she does go. I think that's what's largely responsible for her shooting abilities. She's made about 20,000 shots over the last two summers. She has always been a great shooter, but she's improved her mechanics, and that's because she's spent the time on it."

In 29 games her freshman year, the 5-10, 122-pound Butler scored 562 points (for a 19.4 per game average), hauled in 241 rebounds, made 53 steals, 28 assists and 61 turnovers. She shot 46.2 percent from the field and 75.2 percent from the free throw line. The team finished 22-7.

In 24 games this year, she scored 452 points (18.8 average), hauled in 187 rebounds and 42 steals, dished off 26 assists and made 54 turnovers. She's shooting 42 percent from the field and 70.8 percent from the line. After her 25th game, she had 1,029 points under her belt and the team isn't done with the season yet.

The Centaurs were 19-6 going into their final regular-season game last Monday. They received a bye from the first round of the NAIA District 19 playoffs and will host (and play) the championship game at 7 p.m. Saturday. If they win, they'll advance to a regional game at 7 p.m. March 5 at Allentown College against the winner of District 26, which is from North Carolina. "If we're real fortunate and win there," as Shirley said, the team will go to Iowa March 13 to play in the NAIA national tournament.

If they continue to play with the momentum they've gained as the season progressed, the Centaurs could go a long way. They got off to a slow start this year because center Debbie Ballard was sidelined with an injury. Butler, a forward, was moved to the center slot, where she was forced to play with her back to the basket.

"That was an experiment on my part that failed," Shirley said. "She wasn't getting many shots and teams were keying their zone defense on her. When we were 2-3, I moved a freshman to the No. 5 spot at center and put Lynn back in her No. 4 (forward) position. Since then we've picked up and Lynn has picked up. She was scoring 14 points a game then and 19 points a game now. She's much better facing the basket. And we try and run our offenses to her accordingly."

As highly as he regards her, Shirley doesn't give Butler credit as his team's best player. "She's not the best player on the team. Nancy Irwin is," he indicated. "Nancy's a real blue collar worker, as overworked as that expression is. She guards the toughest player, gets the key rebounds and key foul shots. Lynn is devastating offensively, but she's slow, which hurts in other parts of the game. She's not slow getting the ball off and that's the key. If I coach other kids, I'd like them to have her demeanor. She's quiet and low key, never a problem."

The nursing major's schedule is hectic. In addition to her classes and basketball practices and games, she spends one day a week at Sacred Heart Hospital.

What kind of encore can Butler put together in the next two years? That, of course, remains to be seen. But her list of awards and accomplishments from her freshman and sophomore years is already very long. To name just a few, last year she was a First-Team unanimous selection PAIAW all-conference player; First-Team All-District 19; two-time Player of the Week for NAIA District 19; the team's MVP; and named to the All-American freshman team (NCAA Division 3) as voted by Fast Break Magazine.

So far this year, she has been named NAIA District 19 Player of the Week twice and named Player of the Week by the Philadelphia Sportswriters Association. She is the first underclassman at Allentown College to score 1,000 points and the second woman in the school's basketball history to break 1,000 points.